


The Road to Recovery

by BunniesofDoom



Series: Revenge is Too Sweet [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Team as Family, Volume 7 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29476332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunniesofDoom/pseuds/BunniesofDoom
Summary: The road to recovery is rough, but Ruby has plenty of people around her to help her through it.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Oscar Pine & Ruby Rose, Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose, Qrow Branwen & Ruby Rose, Ruby Rose & Nora Valkyrie, Ruby Rose & Team FNKI, Ruby Rose & Team JNR, Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose & Yang Xiao Long
Series: Revenge is Too Sweet [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026427
Kudos: 38





	The Road to Recovery

When Qrow enters the private hospital room, he's greeted by the sight of Ruby and Yang bent over their respective scrolls, tapping furiously. "How are my two favorite nieces doing?" he asks, ruffing Yang's hair.

"Get off!" Yang bats his hand away, scowling when her momentary lapse in concentration causes her to lose.

"Woohoo!" Ruby cheers, setting down her scroll and smiling up at her uncle. "We're good. How have you been, Uncle Qrow?"

"Busy," Qrow sighs, plopping down in the chair next to Yang. "I would have come to visit sooner, but it's been all hands on deck after this latest . . . incident. James is furious that this happened on his watch."

"It's okay, I get it," Ruby reassures him.

"So, any luck with finding the guy who did this to Ruby?" Yang asks, gazing intently at Qrow. Her scroll lies forgotten in her lap.

"Nothing yet, I'm afraid," Qrow admits with another sigh. "Whoever did this, they're very good at hiding. But we'll keep looking, and I'll keep you two updated on what we find."

"Good," Yang says firmly. "Whoever did this to my little sister is going to pay."

"I agree, firecracker. But, enough about that for now. How are you holding up, Ruby?" Qrow asks, turning to face his youngest niece.

Ruby sits up straighter, doing her best to look as healthy as possible despite sitting in a hospital bed, dressed in her pajamas. At least they're letting her wear actual clothes now, instead of those awful flimsy paper hospital gowns. "I'm feeling way better! Just bored and ready to get out of here."

Sure, her chest still hurts if she moves too much or too fast, and sure, she now has nightmares of slowly suffocating to death on top of all of her other nightmares, but really, it's no big deal. She's fine.

Qrow gives her a knowing smile. "Well, that's good to hear. When are they planning on letting you out of here?"

"They're letting me go back to the dorms tomorrow," Ruby replies, smiling. She's more than ready to have things go back to normal.

"Yeah, but they said that you're still supposed to be resting for another week," Yang reminds her.

Ruby flops back onto her pillows with a groan. She almost makes a comment about how her sister sounds way too much like their dad, but immediately decides against it. It's been way too long since either of them saw their father.

"I'm sure that you'll be back out there before you know it," Qrow says, ruffling her short hair. His scroll buzzes, and he glances at it with a frown. "I'm afraid it's time for me to go. Lots of work to do." He sighs heavily. "I'll try to stay in touch. You two stay out of trouble!" he calls over his shoulder, shutting the door behind him.

Ruby doesn't remember dozing off, but the next thing she knows, she's lying on the floor of the shower rooms again, the cold tiles digging into her back, gasping for air that won't come as the room blurs around her. She can taste blood in her mouth as she continues to wheeze, wishing she could shout for help. Just as she's sure she's about to pass out, she finds herself sitting bolt upright in bed, heart pounding wildly, almost hyperventilating as she realizes she can breathe again.

"Hey, it's okay, you're okay now," a gentle voice soothes. There's a hand rubbing circles between her shoulder blades. Ruby squints her eyes open, and although it's dark, she can easily make out her sister's worried face. "Come on, Rubes, just take a few deep breaths with me."

Once Ruby has managed to calm her breathing, she feels the bed next to her shift as Yang clambers up next to her. "Sorry," she mumbles, scrubbing the tears from her face with the back of her hand and swallowing hard around the lump in her throat.

"Don't be," her sister replies instantly. "It's okay to still be shaken up over it." Yang nudges her until Ruby is pressed up against her, her head tucked against her sister's collarbone. Surrounded by her sister's warmth, Ruby feels her galloping heart gradually begin to slow. Yang runs her finger through Ruby's hair and begins to recite the opening lines of her favorite fairy tale.

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl who went to visit her grandmother in the forest. The girl always wore her red cloak everywhere she went and was known as Little Red Riding Hood . . ."

Just like when she was a child, Ruby finds herself lulled to sleep by the sound of her sister's voice.

Less than a day after being allowed to return to the dorms, Ruby quickly finds herself going stir crazy cooped up in their shared room. After some sweet-talking, she convinces her teammates to accompany her while wandering around the grounds of the school. That's how she and Blake stumble across the academy's library.

The library at Atlas Academy is like something out of one of Ruby's childhood dreams. It's an enormous room, spacious but not overwhelming, filled with towering bookshelves and lined with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. She and Blake spend some time picking out books before settling down in one of the cozy reading nooks scattered throughout the room.

"I honestly can't remember the last time I read a book for fun," Ruby admits, making sure to keep her voice down. Despite her enthusiasm, she doesn't want to get kicked out of the library.

"Me too," Blake replies, smiling sadly. "We've been so busy lately, it's kind of nice to have this break."

"I'm just amazed at how much new stuff there is," Ruby says brightly. "My favorite author put out two new books, and my favorite fantasy series has a new book out as well. It's great to be able to catch up like this." She glances up at Blake, grinning at her friend. "What about you?"

"Yeah, there's definitely some new stuff I want to check out." Blake smiles back at Ruby. The younger girl's enthusiasm is infectious. "That book I was reading about the man with two souls has a sequel where they're forced to work together to defeat an evil sorceress, and one of my favorite faunus authors just released her autobiography. I definitely want to read that."

"That sounds really cool!" Ruby says. The two girls resume reading their respective books, falling into a comfortable silence.

"Salutations!"

Penny's enthusiastic greeting shatters the quiet of the library, making them both jump. "Hey, Penny. It's good to see you," Ruby says, glancing around at the irritated faces of the people around them. "But, um, you might want to keep your voice down, since we're in a library."

"Ah, of course," Penny replies, her voice noticeably quieter. "I was just so excited to see you and Blake. I wanted to come visit you sooner, but I'm afraid that General Ironwood has kept me quite busy as of late. It's understandable, given what happened, but I do wish we could spend more time together. But never mind that. How are you doing, Ruby?"

"I'm doing okay." Ruby can't wipe the grin off her face. She'd guessed that Ironwood would be keeping Penny busy with the search for whoever—poisoned her (it's still hard to think about it for too long)—but it's such a relief to get to see her friend again. "How are you, Penny? I'm so happy we have a chance to catch up—"

"Um, guys?" Blake interrupts hastily. "As grateful as I am that we get to spend some time together, maybe we should take this somewhere else?" she suggests, gesturing to the people sitting around them.

"Oh, um, right. Of course!" Ruby looks flustered, running a hand sheepishly through her hair. As if on cue, her stomach growls, and she blushes further. "Why don't we head to the cafeteria, have a chat there?"

Over a week since the incident, as Ruby is calling it, and she's still not used to the nightmares. Once again, she finds herself jerking awake with her heart racing, gasping for air. You're fine, she reminds herself.

She's surprised to find that Weiss is still awake when she sits up. Her partner is sitting at the small table in their room, reading a book under the light of a lamp. "Hello, Ruby."

"Hey Weiss," she murmurs as she slips out of bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning tiredly. "I didn't realize that you were still awake."

"I've been doing some late-night reading," her partner replies. She glances up at Ruby. "Do you want a cup of tea? I always find that it helps me on nights when I'm having trouble sleeping."

Ruby shrugs, plopping into the chair across from Weiss. "Sure."

"I'll pour you some." Weiss sets her book down and scrambles up from her chair, heading over to the counter. She returns with a steaming cup in hand. "This is chamomile. And don't worry, I added lots of honey for your obscene sweet tooth."

"Thanks, Weiss," Ruby mumbles, taking a cautious sip. She smiles at her partner. "It's good. Thanks, Weiss."

"Chamomile tea is good if you want to relax, and it's also good for your stomach if you're feeling ill. It's good with a little honey added, but sometimes I like to add a little mint, or maybe some lavender . . ."

Ruby drifts off to Weiss explaining the relaxing properties of tea. In the morning, she wakes up with an extra blanket draped around her shoulders.

At some point on their journey through Anima, Ruby had started to seriously question if Nora was actually capable of sitting normally in chairs. Case in point: the redhead is currently sitting upside down on the couch, her head dangling towards the floor. "Hey, Ruby, are they still making you stay off duty?"

Grumbling under her breath, Ruby nods as she plops down on the couch next to the other girl.

"Well, then, that's perfect!" Nora exclaims.

Ruby blinks in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Do you want to join us for movie night?"

Ruby doesn't have to think twice about it. "Of course!" She really hasn't spent enough time with Nora, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar lately. Just because she's back with team RWBY doesn't mean that she should neglect them. They're her teammates too, after all.

And that's how she finds herself in one of the lounge rooms that night, sandwiched between Jaune and Nora with a giant bucket of popcorn on her lap. "We should do this more often."

"If we do, we need to pick better movies to watch," Ren grumbles from his spot on the end of the couch."

"You're just mad because Oscar got to pick this time," Jaune points out.

"Don't tell him I told you, but Ren can be such a film snob," Nora whispers in Ruby's ear. She giggles, before settling down to watch the movie.

Yeah, they definitely need to do stuff like this more often.

"I didn't realize that you'd gotten so close with team FNKI," Ruby says. It's late afternoon afternoon and she and Oscar have been hanging out, discussing his training progress since they arrived in Atlas.

He blushes, smiling ruefully. "Yes, well they've been helping me a lot with my training since we got here." He rubs the back of his head. "And don't tell Nora I said this, but they're actually a lot of fun to be around, even Neon. Especially when her sister's around to rein her in a bit."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," Ruby promises with a laugh. "I'm just glad to see you branching out and making new friends."

"Me too." Oscar grins at her. "I suppose I don't need to ask twice if you'd like to join us this afternoon to bake cookies?"

Ruby jumps to her feet. "Of course!"

"Oh hey, I know you, you're Weiss' partner," Flint says, glancing up at Ruby as joins them in the kitchen.

Ruby jumps a little when Neon wraps an arm around her shoulder. "And Yang's little sister. Hey, you're the one who can go really fast, right? That must be so cool! Hey, do you think you could take me along for the ride sometime? It'd be super fun!"

Neon is a little overwhelming, but Ruby can't help the grin that comes to her face. "Sure, I don't see why not."

"Sweet!" Neon exclaims, beaming. "Oooh, are those chocolate chips I see? Gimme!"

"Neon!" Her sister scolds. "Try not to eat them all before we even put them in the cookies."

"Oh, it's on!" Ruby shouts, dashing after the other girl. "I bet I can eat more than you!"

Ruby's almost fallen into a sense normalcy by the end of the week when she's finally allowed to go back to work. And then, the day after, Ironwood announces that he's giving them a mandatory night off. And she still has so much catching up to do!

Oh, well. No point in arguing with him.

"Are you sure that you're going to be okay going to Robyn's Rally?" Yang asks for no less than the fifth time in twenty minutes.

And, for the fifth time in twenty minutes, Ruby barely resists the urge to roll her eyes. "Yes, mom," she sighs. "I'm going with Ren and Nora, and they have people running security there. Penny's going to be there. I'll be fine, so you and Blake can go dancing and enjoy your date night."

Yang blushes at that last part, and just as Ruby predicted, abandons the conversation in favor of preening for the night out with her girlfriend. She's home free.

After a week of everyone keeping an eye on her, Ruby is starting to feel suffocated by all the attention. Spending the night hanging out with Penny sounds perfect. And even better, once they arrive at the event, Ren and Nora are too busy arguing to notice Ruby slipping away to join Penny.

Operation: Get a Night to Myself is going smoothly.

And then the lights go out, and the celebratory mood is replaced with a sense of great unease. People in the crowd murmur uneasily, clearly wondering what's going on. And then Ruby spots him in the crowd.

Tyrian Callows.

The scorpion faunus glances over at her and winks. "I hope you enjoyed your coffee, bitch."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please comment and leave kudos if you liked it.
> 
> Just a reminder that I do take requests for fics, so if there's an idea that you'd like to see me write, feel free to message me and if I like it, I might end up writing something for it.


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